Automated transfer of enriched transaction account data to a submitted record of charge

ABSTRACT

Transaction account holders are able to attach additional data to a transaction in concert with the transaction being initiated, prior to the merchant posting the transaction. Transaction account holders do not have to wait and/or opt for an external service provider to assist with the compiling and/or attaching of data at a later point in time (e.g., after the merchant posts the transaction). Transaction account holders may upload and access electronic receipts associated with a transaction authorization almost immediately after the sale and/or authorization of the transaction.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to financial transactions, andmore particularly, a system and method of appending enhanced informationto a financial transaction record.

BACKGROUND

Credit cards, charge cards, and other transaction instruments arecommonly accepted today as a form of payment under a variety ofcircumstances. A transaction instrument may be used to complete apurchase in-person (e.g., at a retail store, a restaurant, or a hotel)by physically presenting a merchant with the transaction instrument. Atransaction instrument may also be used to complete a purchase, withoutphysically presenting the transaction instrument, by relayinginformation associated with the transaction instrument (e.g., accountnumber, account name, expiration date, and billing address) to amerchant, such as though a computer or point of sale (POS) device.Examples of merchants that accept transaction account information aspayment, without physically receiving the transaction instrument includeInternet, telephone and mail order merchants.

SUMMARY

A method includes authorizing, by a computer-based system configured forprocessing transactions, a transaction between a merchant and atransaction account holder. According to various embodiments, the methodmay include transmitting, by the computer-based system, a notificationto at least one of the merchant or the transaction account holder that atransaction has been initiated and a pending charge has been created.The method may include receiving, by the computer-based system, enricheddata from at least one of the merchant or a transaction account holderto be associated with the pending charge. A pending charge occurs priorto a charge being posted by the merchant. The method may includeassociating, by the computer-based system, the enriched data to thepending charge. The method may include storing, by the computer-basedsystem, the enriched data to an enriched data database.

According to various embodiments, the method may include receiving, bythe computer-based system, a posted charge associated with thetransaction from the merchant; reconciling, by the computer-basedsystem, the pending charge and the posted charge; and transferring theenriched data from being associated with the pending charge to beingassociated with the posted charge. The method may include transmittingthe enriched data to at least one of the merchant, the transactionaccount holder or a third party, in response to a request to view theenriched data. In response to the receipt of the notification,enrichment data may be associated with the pending charge. The pendingcharge may be configured to be associated with enrichment datasubstantially simultaneously with an initiation of the transaction. Inresponse to enriched data being associated with a pending charge thatdoes not mature into a posted charge, the enriched data may be detachedfrom the pending charge after a predetermined period and the transactionaccount holder may access the enriched data by viewing an unmatched datafile.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates a process flow for attaching enriched data to apending transaction, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a process flow for utilization of enriched data inaccordance with various embodiments; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a process flow for reconciling enriched data attachedto pending transactions to posted transactions, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration and their best mode. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understood thatother embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution,” “transactionaccount issuer” and “payment processor” may include any person, entity,software and/or hardware that offers transaction account services.Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” the financialinstitution may represent any type of bank, lender or other type ofaccount issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument,” or “transaction account product” may be usedinterchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument. As usedherein, an account code may or may not be associated with a physicalfinancial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to a “buyer,” “participant”, “consumer,” and“user” may include any person, entity, software and/or hardware thatreceives items in exchange for consideration (e.g. financial payment).For example, a buyer may purchase, lease, rent, barter or otherwiseobtain items from a supplier and pay the supplier using a transactionaccount.

Phrases or terms similar to a “processor” (such as a payment processor)or “transaction account issuer” may include a company (e.g., a thirdparty) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions formerchant banks Processors may be broken down into two types: front-endand back-end. Front-end processors have connections to varioustransaction accounts and supply authorization and settlement services tothe merchant banks' merchants. Back-end processors accept settlementsfrom front-end processors and, via The Federal Reserve Bank, move moneyfrom an issuing bank to the merchant bank. In an operation that willusually take a few seconds, the payment processor will both check thedetails received by forwarding the details to the respective account'sissuing bank or card association for verification, and may carry out aseries of anti-fraud measures against the transaction. Additionalparameters, including the account's country of issue and its previouspayment history, may be used to gauge the probability of the transactionbeing approved. In response to the payment processor receivingconfirmation that the transaction account details have been verified,the information may be relayed back to the merchant, who will thencomplete the payment transaction. In response to the verification beingdenied, the payment processor relays the information to the merchant,who may then decline the transaction.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

Phrases or terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction. A“transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described herein).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, and telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, aphysical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as afinancial instrument.

Transaction account authorizations may be performed at the transactionaccount Issuer's Credit Authorization System (CAS) in response to aswipe/submission of transaction instrument data by the transactionaccount holder at a Point of Sale (PoS) system and/or merchant. The CASissues an approval code as a proof of authorization. According tovarious embodiments, the systems and methods disclosed herein allow atransaction account holder, a merchant, a transaction account processingcompany, and/or any other third party to attach, append, link and/orassociate additional details (e.g., documents/receipts/warranty/picturesof the product) or notes, expense tags and/or expense managementsoftware categories or reminders (such as for return or any furtheraction on the purchase) to these authorizations. The newly establishedbusiness process and its technology implementation enables the seamlessflow of the attached document/information to the merchant financialtransactions (which may be submitted, posted, transaction account issuerprocessed) in the transaction account statements, such as in anelectronic and/or reoccurring statement. Early capture of thisinformation in response to, and almost immediately after theauthorization, provides for a seamless flow to the transaction accountstatement.

In conventional systems, this additional information attachment to thetransaction account authorizations (also known as Pending Charges) isnot possible today. This enhanced functionality offers convenience(effective expense management, reminders, simplified book keeping) andreduced fraud/disputes of transactions for transaction account holders.This fully automated process solves the tedious, manual interventiondriven process of requesting information for multiple parties andmatching the document information to the transactions posted after(e.g., 24 hours to 72 hours from) the time of swipe (or presentment oftransaction account).

Due to widespread adoption of smart phones and mobile devices, there isan increased need for capturing the details about a transaction insubstantially real time and to automatically convert the transaction,along with the captured details, to a posted charge. According tovarious embodiments, capturing and handling of additional information atthe transaction account authorization level is facilitated, whichseamlessly flows to the posted, recent activity, and/or billingstatement transactions.

Previous solution attempts have been directed to gathering informationand keeping the data in a temporary storage at a transaction accountholder side, merchant side, transaction account processors side and/orthird parties' side. Conventionally, one has to wait for the transactionto be posted by the merchant for the record to be available at thetransaction account servicing sites. Historically, once the merchantposts the transactions, either the transaction account holder,transaction account processing company, and/or a third party willinitiate a process to match the information captured to the postedtransaction. In many cases, the efficiency of this matching is heavilydependent on the optical character recognition, information quality andalso manual intervention. Also process efficiency is very low and notreliable in most of the cases. This makes it difficult for transactionaccount holders to manage their expenses. Automating the enrichmentinformation flow from pending charges/transaction account authorizationsto recent activity offers benefits over the existing systems. Allowingenrichment of transaction data based on the authorization, and thencarrying that information over in response to the transaction beingsubmitted and posted in the accounts receivable system, may beadvantageous to all associated parties.

According to various embodiments, the systems and methods may allowtransaction account holders to upload and access electronic receiptsassociated with a transaction authorization almost immediately after thesale/transaction completion. In this way, more information is availableat the transaction level, which helps to provide increased financialclarity. This may result in easier accounting and/or book keeping.Warranty documents and tracking of services may be accommodated by thesystems and methods described herein.

According to various embodiments, enhanced satisfaction may beexperienced by transaction account holders. For instance, digitalconnection access is provided to transaction account holders almostimmediately after the sale, which can be used for providing continuoussupport and service. Merchants may be able to provide additional offersto the customers by leveraging the digital connection described herein.The systems and methods described provide for a reduction in disputesand a reduction in fraud as a digital copy for the documents and/orreceipts are available all the time at the transaction. Receipt printingand/or POS maintenance cost may be reduced for merchants.

According to various embodiments, transaction account holders may attachadditional data to a transaction in response to the authorization, andprior to the merchant posting the transaction, so that the transactionaccount holder does not have to wait and/or opt for an external serviceprovider to assist with the compiling and/or attaching of data at alater point in time (e.g., after the merchant posts the transaction).

According to various embodiments, a pending transaction is anauthorization that has taken place (the transaction is approved by theprocessor and/or goods have been exchanged for value), where themerchant may decide to post the transaction for reimbursement. Forinstance, there are many cases the transaction is not actually posted.For example, hotel room reservations may often record a transactionaccount for the purpose of guaranty of available payment. Typically, atthe end of the day, a merchant, for the purpose of being reimbursed,will submit pending charges to an issuing bank and/or transactionaccount processor to convert the pending charge to a charge. In this waythe pending charge is converted to a posted/actual charge.

According to various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 1, atransaction account holder 110 may present the transaction account forpayment (step 111) of a transaction, (path 161) at a merchant 120 pointof sale system. Where the merchant, via the POS system may transmit arequest for authorization (step 121). The Point of sale system sends therequest for authorization, (path 162); to the credit authorizationsystem and credit authorization validates the risk and issues theapproval authorization code (step 141). The authorization cade may bestored (step 122) by the merchant 120.

According to various embodiments, the approval authorization code isgenerally issued through third party 130 (path 163) and the approvalauthorization code may be transmitted to the merchant 120. Theauthorization code is stored as proof of the transaction and a receiptmay be issued (step 122). Path 164 depicts the receipt being received(step 112) by the transaction account holder 110. Path 165 depicts, acall that is sent to alert and notification processor (step 142), whichwill send out a notification to the transaction account holder 110. Thetransaction account holder 110 may receive an alert notification (step113), such as via an email, smart phone notification, or an email andsmart phone notification of a recent authorization. Path 167 depictstransaction account holder 110 viewing/accessing pending transactionauthorizations which are not yet posted (step 114), such as via atablet, mobile device and/or desktop.

According to various embodiments, the transaction account holder 110 mayupload enrichment data to an authorization, pending charge and/or postedcharge (step 115). Thus, the transaction account holder 110 may access(step 114) the online servicing application 143) (step 168). Thetransaction account holder's 110 financial transaction fetch, (step148), may retrieve data from account receivable systems (step 149) andor the authorization system (step 141), (via paths 170 and 171). Thetransaction account holder 110 may now have an authorization and/or apending transaction. As noted above, the transaction account holder 110may upload enrichment data (e.g., additional information, documents,tags, notes, reminder needs, warranties, itineraries, reminders,deadlines, product manuals, to an authorization, pending charge and/orposted charge (step 115). In this way, the transaction account holder110 may attach this information almost immediately after theauthorization.

Path 172B depicts the transaction account holder 120 electronicallyaccessing and interacting with a transaction account processing system140 enrichment data capture interface 144. The enrichment data captureinterface 144 may store the data via the data enrichment storagedatabase 150 (path 173A).

Path 172A depicts a path initiated by a merchant 120. The merchant 120may upload additional information (such as additional information,documents, tags, notes, reminder needs, warranties, itineraries,reminders, deadlines, product manuals, to an authorization, pendingcharge and/or posted charge (step 123). The Merchant 120 may interactwith a transaction account processing system 140 enrichment data captureinterface 144. The enrichment data capture interface 144 may store thedata via data enrichment storage database 150 (path 173A).

Path 178B depicts a path initiated by a third party 130. The third party130 may upload additional information (such as additional information,documents, tags, notes, reminder needs, warranties, itineraries,reminders, deadlines, product manuals, to an authorization, pendingcharge and/or posted charge (step 131). The third party 130 may interact(step 132) with a transaction account processing system 140 enrichmentdata capture interface 144. A transaction account holder 110 may viewthe data uploaded by the third party 130. The enrichment data captureinterface 144 may store the data via data enrichment storage database150 (path 178B).

According to various embodiments with continued reference to FIG. 1, anautomated process for data transfer (step 151) is accomplished by thetransaction account processing system 140 (path 176). In this way, datastored to pending transactions is transferred over to posted, via path177, transactions (step 152). The enrichment data view interface 146 mayinterface via paths 179A or 179B the posted charge for enriched dataand/or the pending charge for enriched data.

In response to the authorization code and charge details being posted(step 124) by the merchant via path 174 to submission (step 145); theaccount receivable system 149 received the information. In response tothe data reaching account receivable system 149, an automated processfor data transfer (step 151, and further illustrated in FIG. 2, may beinvoked from pending transactions to posted transactions. For instance,in response to the submission (step 145) data reaching the accountreceivable system 149, automated data transfer (step 151) may occur. Inresponse to the data being moved to posted charge data enrichmentstorage 152, the enriched data is available and linked to postedtransactions.

Thus, the transaction account holder 110 may view (step 116) theenriched data via the enrichment data view interface (step 146) prior toits posting (path 178A). Reminders, having access (path 181) to postedcharge data enrichment storage 152 may be configured to be dispatched(step 147) to be received (step 117) by a transaction account holder 110via path 180.

According to various embodiments with reference to FIG. 2 a multi-stepprocess is illustrated. These steps may include authorization,notification, data enrichment, charge posting, data transfer automation,and/or utilization of enriched data. For instance, the authorization maycomprise a transaction account holder presenting the transaction accountto a Merchant for payment and receives a receipt with Authorization(Approval) code from the Merchant (step 210). The Merchant may transmitthe authorization request to a Credit Authorization system and receivethe approval Code for printing on Receipts. Notification may comprise atransaction account issuer/provider sending an alert notification to atransaction account holder about the recent authorization (step 220).Data enrichment may comprise a transaction account holder uploadingenrichment data, such as a receipt image, documents, tags, notes,expense tags, and/or reminder requests to the authorization and/orpending charge. The merchant may uploads this or other information onbehalf of a transaction account holder. A third party or a transactionaccount provider may add additional information to the authorization(step 230). Charge post may comprise a merchant posting the charge to atransaction account provider for presentment in recent activity andbilling statements (step 240). Data transfer automation may comprise atransaction account provider transferring enriched data fromauthorization to a posted charge (step 250). This may avoid manualintervention and saves time for a transaction account holder.Utilization of the enriched data may comprise a credit card user gettingautomated reminders from a transaction account providers, creatingExpense reports, and/or account management is simplified. Receipts andadditional notes may be utilized for avoiding fraud, tax filing andreduced disputes (Step 260).

According to various embodiments with reference to FIG. 3 an automatedprocess for data transfer is illustrated. Stated another way, theseamless transferring of enriched data from a pending charge to a postedcharge is depicted. A batch job may be triggered to process enrichedauthorization data transfer on a periodic basis, such as daily or twicedaily (step 300). Programming initiates the accounts with enrichedauthorization data being fetched (step 310) from an enriched datadatabase 311. Stated another way, in response to the transaction accountholder uploads receipts and access tags and other details, the data maybe stored to a pending charge (step 320). The system may search forrecent authorizations on each account (step 321) such as from anauthorization data database, 322. Next the system inspects eachtransaction account for records of submitted charges (step 330) such asvia an account receivable database 331. Data consolation occurs in step340. For instance, the authorization data that is fetched is reconciledwith the data that is posted, such as using transaction attributes, suchas a transaction date, amount, merchant information, and/or theauthorization code. If an association and/or link is found (step 341),the data that is captured at an authorization level is transferred intothe corresponding posted charge (step 342). If an association and/orlink is not found (step 350), the system continues to search forassociations.

According to various embodiments, if enriched data is attached to apending charge that does not mature into a posted charge, the enricheddata may be detached from the pending charge, such as after apredetermined period (7 days) and the transaction account holder mayaccess the enriched data by viewing an unmatched data file. Forinstance, in a scenario where a hotel holds a reservation with atransaction account, a user may upload their itinerary as enriched datafor reimbursement by their employer. Should the transaction accountholder later switch transaction accounts from the initial transactionaccount the reservation was held under to a different account to pay forthe reservation, the initial pending charge will not mature into aposted charge. The transaction account holder may view and/or access theenriched data in an unmatched documents section of a transaction accountholder user interface.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and merchant through any suitable communication means, such as,for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, public Internet,a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS) device,personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), onlinecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/orthe like.

An “account”, “account code”, or “account number”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system (e.g., one or more of anauthorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like). The accountnumber may optionally be located on or associated with a rewards card,charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account. The systemmay include or interface with any of the foregoing cards or devices, QRcodes, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication, or a transponder and RFIDreader in RF communication with the transponder (which may include afob). Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card,cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented forinterrogation.

Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussed herein mayinclude a “pervasive computing device,” which may include atraditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computingunit. Examples can include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances,restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses withimbedded transponders, etc.

The account code may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A customer account code may be, for example, asixteen-digit transaction account code, although each transactionaccount provider has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digitnumbering system used by American Express. Each company's transactionaccount codes comply with that company's standardized format such thatthe company using a fifteen-digit format will generally use three-spacedsets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. Thefirst five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing bank, card type, etc. In this example, the last(fifteenth) digit is used as a sum check for the fifteen digit number.The intermediary eight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identifythe customer. A merchant account code may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identify a merchant for purposes of cardacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present disclosure, may be completed in a format recognizable by amerchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example,the information may be transmitted from a contactless (e.g., an RFIDdevice) to a contactless (e.g., RFID) reader or from the contactlessreader to the merchant system in a variety of formats, e.g., magneticstripe or multi-track magnetic stripe format.

As used herein, an http session may comprise an impermanent interactivecommunication exchange between a first web-client (as described herein)and a second web-client and/or between a front-end system, such as aweb-client (e.g., a mobile device or personal computer) and a backendsystem (e.g., a transaction account issuer server or server system).

A web-client may include any device (e.g., personal computingdevice/mobile communication device) which communicates via any network.A web-client may be associated with and/or used by a consumer, amerchant, or both. A web-client may comprise a variety of browsingsoftware or browser applications (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or any other of the myriadsoftware packages available for browsing the internet). Such browserapplications may comprise Internet browsing software installed within acomputing unit or a system to conduct online transactions and/orcommunications. These computing units or systems may take the form of acomputer or processor, or a set of computers/processors, although othertypes of computing units or systems may be used, including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, cellularphones, smart phones (e.g., iPhone®, BlackBerry®, Droid®, etc.) set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over anetwork.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web-client may include anoperating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) as well as various conventionalsupport software and drivers typically associated with computers. Aweb-client may implement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web-client may implement oneor more application layer protocols, including, for example, http,https, ftp, and sftp. Transactions originating at a web client may passthrough a firewall (not shown; see below) in order to preventunauthorized access from users of other networks.

A network may comprise any electronic communications system or methodwhich incorporates software and/or hardware components. Communicationmay be accomplished through any suitable communication channels, suchas, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet,Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device, personaldigital assistant, smart phone, cellular phone (e.g., iPhone®, PalmPilot®, Blackberry®), kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellitecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications,transponder communications, local area network (LAN), wide area network(WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networked or linked devices,keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication or data inputmodality. Moreover, although a network may be described herein as beingimplemented with TCP/IP communications protocols, the network may alsobe implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunnelingprotocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or any number of existing or futureprotocols. If the network is in the nature of a public network, such asthe Internet, it may be advantageous to presume the network to beinsecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specific information related to theprotocols, standards, and application software utilized in connectionwith the Internet is generally known to those skilled in the art and, assuch, need not be detailed herein. See, for example, DILIP NAIK,INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2 COMPLETE, variousauthors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY, MASTERING HTML 4.0(1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997) and DAVID GOURLEYAND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002), the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components described herein may be independently,separately or collectively coupled to the network via one or more datalinks including, for example, a connection to an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) over a local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network may beimplemented variously. For example, network may be implemented as aninteractive television (ITV) network. The systems and methods disclosedherein contemplate the use, sale and/or distribution of any goods,services or information over any network having functionality similar tothat described above with reference to network.

In the detailed description herein, references to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, “an example embodiment”, “various embodiments”, etc.,indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in certain embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the particular machines, andthose hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as would beappreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000, XP, Vista, OS2, UNIX, Linux,Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A user may include anyindividual, business, entity, government organization, software and/orhardware that interact with a system.

In an embodiment, various components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”,“cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the inventionshave been described as a method in certain embodiments, it iscontemplated that it may be embodied as computer program instructions ona tangible computer-readable carrier, such as a magnetic or opticalmemory or a magnetic or optical disk. All structural, chemical, andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the above-described exemplaryembodiments that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for adevice or method to address each and every problem sought to be solvedby the present disclosure, for it to be encompassed by the presentclaims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in thepresent disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardlessof whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recitedin the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the element is expressly recitedusing the phrase “means for.” As used herein, the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover anon-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: authorizing, by acomputer-based system, a transaction between a merchant and atransaction account holder; transmitting, by the computer-based system,a notification to at least one of the merchant or the transactionaccount holder that the transaction has been initiated and a pendingcharge has been created; receiving, by the computer-based system, a linkto enrichment data from at least one of the merchant or the transactionaccount holder to be associated with the pending charge; providing, bythe computer-based system, access to the enrichment data via the link tothe enrichment data, wherein the link to the enrichment data includesfunctionality for downloading at least one of documents, reminder needs,warranties, itineraries, reminders, deadlines or product manuals;associating, by the computer-based system, the link to the enrichmentdata with the pending charge; and storing, by the computer-based system,the link to the enrichment data in an enrichment data database.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computer-basedsystem, a posted charge associated with the transaction from themerchant.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising reconciling, bythe computer-based system, the pending charge and the posted charge. 4.The method of claim 3, further comprising transferring, by thecomputer-based system, the link to the enrichment data from beingassociated with the pending charge to being associated with the postedcharge.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, bythe computer-based system, the link to the enrichment data to at leastone of the merchant, the transaction account holder or a third party, inresponse to a request to view the enrichment data.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein in response to receipt of the notification, the link tothe enrichment data is ready to be associated with the pending charge.7. The method of claim 1, wherein the pending charge is configured to beassociated with the link to the enrichment data substantiallysimultaneously with an initiation of the transaction.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein in response to the link to the enrichment data beingassociated with the pending charge that does not mature into a postedcharge, the link to the enrichment data is detached from the pendingcharge after a predetermined period, for the transaction account holderto access the link to the enrichment data by viewing an unmatched datafile.
 9. A system comprising: a processor; and a tangible,non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, thetangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that,in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor toperform operations comprising: authorizing, by the processor, atransaction between a merchant and a transaction account holder;transmitting, by the processor, a notification to at least one of themerchant or the transaction account holder that the transaction has beeninitiated and a pending charge has been created; receiving, by theprocessor, a link to enrichment data from at least one of the merchantor the transaction account holder to be associated with the pendingcharge; providing, by the processor, access to the enrichment data viathe link to the enrichment data, wherein the link to the enrichment dataincludes functionality for downloading at least one of documents,reminder needs, warranties, itineraries, reminders, deadlines or productmanuals; associating, by the processor, the link to the enrichment datawith the pending charge; and storing, by the processor, the link to theenrichment data in an enrichment data database.
 10. The system of claim9, further comprising receiving, by the processor, a posted chargeassociated with the transaction from the merchant.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, further comprising reconciling, by the processor, the pendingcharge and the posted charge.
 12. The system of claim 11, furthercomprising transferring, by the processor, the link to the enrichmentdata from being associated with the pending charge to being associatedwith the posted charge.
 13. The system of claim 9, further comprisingtransmitting by the processor, the link to the enrichment data to atleast one of the merchant, the transaction account holder or a thirdparty, in response to a request to view the enrichment data.
 14. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein in response to receipt of the notification,the link to the enrichment data is ready to be associated with thepending charge.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein the pending charge isconfigured to be associated with the link to the enrichment datasubstantially simultaneously with an initiation of the transaction. 16.The system of claim 9, wherein in response to the link to the enrichmentdata being associated with the pending charge that does not mature intoa posted charge, the link to the enrichment data is detached from thepending charge after a predetermined period for the transaction accountholder to access the link to the enrichment data by viewing an unmatcheddata file.
 17. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory,tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions storedthereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system, causethe computer-based system to perform operations comprising: authorizing,by the computer-based system, a transaction between a merchant and atransaction account holder; transmitting, by the computer-based system,a notification to at least one of the merchant or the transactionaccount holder that the transaction has been initiated and a pendingcharge has been created; receiving, by the computer-based system, a linkto enrichment data from at least one of the merchant or the transactionaccount holder to be associated with the pending charge; providing, bythe computer-based system, access to the enrichment data via the link tothe enrichment data, wherein the link to the enrichment data includesfunctionality for downloading at least one of documents, reminder needs,warranties, itineraries, reminders, deadlines or product manuals;associating, by the computer-based system, the link to the enrichmentdata with the pending charge; and storing, by the computer-based system,the link to the enrichment data in an enrichment data database.
 18. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 17, further comprising receiving, by thecomputer-based system, a posted charge associated with the transactionfrom the merchant.
 19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, furthercomprising reconciling, by the computer-based system, the pending chargeand the posted charge.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim 19,further comprising transferring the link to the enrichment data frombeing associated with the pending charge to being associated with theposted charge.